Downtown Lawrence Kansas
Dr. Bob Dinsdale
Author
Dr. Bob Dinsdale

I grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska and went to undergrad at Baylor University, then on to medical school and ENT residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.  Katherine and I and our three girls moved here in 1990 to join the Lawrence ENT practice and we have been here ever since. I am retiring this year and starting Lawrencehistorytours.com. I have a decades-long passion for history, especially the stories of the people and events that have shaped our town. I use techniques learned in my training as a physician to find facts and see things in new ways. I hope these stories then enlighten and entertain as people gain a new appreciation of what has gone before them.

The Founding of Lawrence: The Arms Race

The town of Lawrence was founded on August 1, 1854, by settlers sent by the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company. They were the first of 1,000 settlers sent to populate Kansas Territory with abolitionists. The Company was funded by a group of Boston abolitionists spurred to action by the new…

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Highly documented drama on the Underground Railroad

On December 19, 1858, Jim Daniels took his life in his hands and asked an agent of the Underground Railroad for freedom for him, his wife Narcissus, and their children. The next night, John Brown, the radical abolitionist, came to their farmstead in Missouri and killed a slaveowner while liberating…

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